Preparing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

About

This University of Toronto initiative brings together academic researchers and partner organizations to assess how training, education, and public policies should respond to the changing nature of work in an era marked by disruptive technologies. Read more

Features

We are linking with partners from educational institutions, government bodies, and private industry to assemble relevant data on the changing world of work in Canada. Here is some highlights from our latest research:

01.–

Policy Options for the Changing World of Work

This research paper offers a critical assessment of contemporary ideas about labour market training, as well as of the initiatives proposed to assist workers and industries unsettled by technological disruption.

03.–

Database of Jurisdictional Responses to the Future of Work

This database surveys government, for-profit, and not-for-profit programs designed to support workers displaced by new technologies, and programs designed to help individuals develop the skills necessary to thrive in future modes of work.

Articles of Interest

Current upheavals in the labour market -- and anxieties about the future of work -- are gaining ever-increasing media attention.

An internet cafe in Pakistan. B.K. BANGASH / AP

The online gig economy's "race to the bottom"

From The Atlantic: "But while freelance websites may have raised wages and broadened the number of potential employers for some people, they’ve forced every new worker who signs up into entering a global marketplace with endless competition, low wages, and little stability."

A Wal-Mart with automated checkout machines. GUNNAR RATHBUN / AP

Canada Needs New Data for a new Economy

From The Star: "Intelligent automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies are set to reshape the Canadian job market. It isn’t necessarily job loss we should be worried about, but job shift — and whether or not Canada is ready. We need the data to guide us."

The iCub robot. AP

Machines will do More than Half the Work by 2025

From CBC News: "Our research suggests that neither businesses nor governments have fully grasped the size of this key challenge of the Fourth Industrial Revolution"